R&D management is often discussed in isolation from the technologies being researched or managed. But R&D management as a field has long been co-evolving with the available technologies and will continue to do so. Building on similar tracks at the last five R&D Management Conferences, the intention of the track is to promote discussion about this interdependency or entanglement.

Papers in this track have been diverse and we do not have a template for what should or should not be included. As a general indication, papers are encouraged that:
• concentrate on one or more specific technologies, ideally identified at a granularity that their distinct characteristics can be appreciated, or
• explore how the evolution of an R&D management practice has arisen from a scientific, technological or application context, or
• investigate how emerging ‘deep tech’ or ‘frontier technologies’ are shaping R&D management practices, or
• are co-authored between R&D management scholars and technologists, or
• deepen our understanding of projects as the unit of activity in R&D.

Past papers in this track have looked at such topics as the way in which AI has transformed technology foresight; technology adoption across technological discontinuities, convergence between science fields and science communities; incorporating data science into internet-of-things new product development; how Agile development methods transfer to complex physical product development projects; the role of co-creation in the particular case of robotics innovation; and how R&D management processes change across the technology transition of additive manufacturing.

An emergent theme in this track is the central role of ‘projects’ in real-world R&D. While R&D activity is almost always conducted through projects, there is relatively little contemporary analysis at project level.